Classroom Reminiscing
by theBrillianceofNight
Summary: Iruka's classroom had all types of motivational posters hung around. When he first hung them up, it was just to create a friendly learning environment. What he is just realizing is how much the words on said posters affected those who entered.
1. Ch 1: Trying Harder

Trying Harder

Naruto remembers once reading something on a poster on the blackboard wall of Iruka-sensei's classroom. It took him a while to piece together as he was still going through the learning process of reading, but once he finally deciphered its words, he found something that perfectly described his own work ethic.

_Just because something is _difficult_ doesn't mean you shouldn't _try_. It means you should just try _harder_._

He bears this in mind as he continues to build up chakra and sets it to 'whirl'. Over and over and over again, each time as it becomes harder and harder to do, he simply adds more effort, more determination, more resolve. And then when he finally collapses from exhaustion, he struggles to stand back up, but he does anyway, and gathers his chakra in the palm of his hand, blue energy swirling like a typhoon, with just as much power, a miniature hurricane he can hold, just for himself and his mentor, but at the same time for everyone he cares about, everyone he holds dear. Everyone who needs a hero, needs the key to freedom, needs a new-and-improved reason to live, to fight, to continue on.

He thinks upon this quote, muttering it over and over like a mantra, this and the name of the one he is trying so desperately to save. _Difficult—try harder. Sasuke. Sasuke. Difficult—try harder. Sasuke._

He wonders briefly for a moment when he opens his eyes and finds himself looking up at the sky, flat on his back, if Sasuke knows just how great this statement is. He must know—he was always so much brighter, so much stronger, so much more observant, so superior. But he thinks back on the quote—_Try, try, try—_and gets back up again.

When he finally achieves his goal, he smiles and is filled with a surge of happiness until he realizes something and immediately is feels cold and empty. All through this, did he ever think about Sakura, sitting around back home and worrying about _their_ teammate? Did he ever pause momentarily for Kakashi-sensei, inhabiting the bed next to Sasuke's? Did he, once, hesitate and wonder about everyone else he left behind?

And now Naruto realizes just how small-minded, how selfish, how stupid he really is. So the next day, when he wakes up in the hotel room with the pervert-sage and a worried Shizune-san, he ignores the chakra burns all over his arms and hands and the destruction surrounding him. He pushes away the pain, the discomfort—_how can I be helpful to others if I'm always thinking about me?—_and fixes a wide and sheepish smile on his face. And through it all, he's repeating over and over again to himself,

_It's difficult, so I just have to try harder._

* * *

A/N: It started out well enough… but then it got so dark and depressing. It wasn't on purpose, I swear!… But I still like it…


	2. Ch 2: Respect

The day after one of Naruto's most epic pranks yet (cementing the door of the mission room shut), Iruka sits him down on a seat in his classroom and begins to lecture him (like always). But Naruto isn't listening (of course!), as is evident by the question he asks when Iruka finally stops scolding him.

"Ne, Iruka-sensei, what does that poster mean?" he asks, pointing at a poster hung up on the wall of the room with the large windows (into one of which a curious bluebird is looking).

Iruka smacks him upside the head ("OW!") for not listening, then stops to think whether or not he should answer. Naruto barely wants to learn on his own, or of his own accord (teaching him is usually like trying to get a nin-cat to stop scratching), so this is a very rare occurrence and should not be pushed aside.

"First of all, what does the poster say?" Iruka asks, knowing that if Naruto is asking the question now (instead of the fifty times he could've before), it was probably because he was trying to figure out what it said on his own first (like he does nearly everything). After all, Naruto has terrible timing and blurts things out as soon as he thinks of them (like the other day when he realized Ino was loud and belted it out just before she left the room—needless to say, Ino left the room much later after beating him up first).

"It says, 'If you expect respect, be the first to show it'," Naruto proclaims proudly (he's finally starting to master the art of word manipulation).

"So you know what it says," Iruka says (the crinkle of the area between his eyes means he's confused).

"Well, yeah, what it says, but what is that supposed to mean?" Naruto asks.

"You know what respect is, right?" Iruka asks. (Then he stops Naruto, reminding him that the way he acts towards Sakura isn't respect, it's rude gawking, and that the way he acts toward the Hokage was the closest to respect, but it wasn't always as close or family-like as the bond between them.)

"So, then how I treat you and the Old Man is respect?" Naruto asks.

"The closest thing," Iruka clarifies. Then he sighs (not an exasperated sigh, or a tired sigh, not even a how-the-hell-do-I-explain-this sigh). "You know, I just remembered, one of my friends and I used to not be able to stand each other. It was around the same time that I got the poster. So one day, when he was my partner in the mission room and he complimented me on how thorough my filing was, I complimented him back. I was able to show respect for him because he made the first move to show respect." (Of course, Iruka leaves out the part where Izumo was a total creep and that they're still not as good friends anymore because they got into a fight and were and are both afraid to make the first move).

"So… I should wait for people to respect me before I show it back?" Naruto asks, his blue eyes (as blue as the sky and the ocean but as pure as the pranked backed-up toilet in the teacher's lounge) filled with confusion.

"No, Naruto," Iruka says, wondering how to word this (he'll have to be much more delicate than that pervert Kakashi trying to teach _Iruka__'__s_ students what sex was). "What I mean is that… that you should give others respect first before expecting them to respect you."

Naruto immediately looks down dejectedly (his blue blue eyes get huge and he looks like a kicked puppy and Iruka has to restrain his impulse to _HUG_). "Then I guess I can't have that much respect, then."

Iruka carefully tilts Naruto's chin up. "What do you mean, Naruto?" he asks. "It is possible for you to earn back someone's respect, you know," he adds (of course, he's thinking that Naruto's referring to ALL of those pranks he's pulled in just the past year alone).

Naruto just smiles, his eyes not joining in. "Aw, just forget I said anything, Iruka-sensei. It's not important." He quickly traipses out, before Iruka (who is completely at a loss for words) can stop him.

A year later, and Naruto is a genin earning his respect, first from his classmates and slowly from the teachers and adults. He's even managed to impress Ebisu and earn _his_ respect (Iruka thought for sure that would be impossible after _that_ incident, but really, Iruka should have known better than to think that anything was impossible for Naruto).

Somehow, though, whenever Iruka brings up that conversation (seems so long ago already), Naruto just looks away with downcast eyes (still so blue but they seem dimmer for some reason). Iruka will congratulate him on his successes, but Naruto just shrugs and laughs (and doesn't really seem to believe he's accomplished anything).

Finally, Naruto caves and he lets Iruka in on his secret.

"I've treated them all nicely from the start, but they still never seemed to have a bit of respect for me. So I pranked. Ya know, might as well give them a _reason_ to disrespect me." He shrugs again (doesn't look like Kakashi shrugging sheepishly after Iruka caught him, more like Izumo whenever they meet and neither really knows what to say and Iruka asks if he's alright and Izumo just shrugs in the same way Naruto is r-), "Plus, if I've been polite for so long without any results, why should doing it on purpose change anything?"

Iruka is shocked out of his mind (even more than Izumo will be since Iruka's finally made up his mind to go apologize) and just barely recovers his senses in time to watch Naruto get up and leave and to hear him whisper despondently.

"_Besides… It's not like I ever expected respect in the first place…"_


End file.
